Universal Music And Hip-Hop Player All Def Boost Film And TV Volume

Universal Music Group and All Def Media, a purveyor of hip-hop content backed by investors including Greycroft Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and WPP, have expanded their relationship to encompass long- and short-form video.

Under an overall programming and marketing partnership, the two companies will also team for live events and social media.

TV and film offerings will cater to UMG’s roster of artists, recorded music and publishing catalog. ADM’s music series include Arts and Raps and the Crate, and its comedy titles such as Dad Jokes, Bad News and Roast Me. ADM consistently generates more than 300 million monthly views for its programs across Facebook, YouTube and other platforms. ADM’s All Def LA monthly residency in downtown LA features emerging hip-hop talent.

Along with the overall expansion, the companies announced their first three collaborations. Crossroads 24 is a series that chronicles a pivotal day in an artist’s life featuring Def Jams’ YG, Pusha T and others. An expansion of All Def’s Live Leaks franchise showcases artists including Interscope’s Rae Sremmurd and Smino. And the series Plan B sees music artists experiment with second career choices.

Celine Joshua, UMG’s General Manager of Commercial, Content & Artist Strategy, said, “Universal Music continues to push boundaries for our artists, the most creative storytellers in the industry, to produce premium video content that reach fans and new audiences around the world on any screen they choose. With Chris Blackwell and his team at ADM, we’re building on our already successful track record to expand into scripted and non-scripted programs that will soon be available across multiple global platforms. Video is essential to the future of our business, so whether vertical, short or long, I’m thrilled to work with our artists, labels and ADM to bring these exciting new projects to life for fans.”

Hip-hop as a genre lends itself to video, the companies emphasized.

“There’s a new generation of music consumers searching to find authentic, meaningful, hip-hop content and experiences,” said ADM’s President and Chief Digital Officer Chris Blackwell. “At the same time the next class of iconic content creators are capturing artist storytelling like never before. We’re extremely grateful that Sir Lucian and UMG’s legendary labels want to innovate with us and are helping us build a platform to push the culture forward.”